TÉKHNE - Review of Applied Management Studies (2014) 12, 48---57

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ARTICLE

Expatriates recruitment and selection for long-term

international assignments in Portuguese companies

D. Martins a,∗, L.M. Diaconescub

a Superior School of Industrial and Management Studies, Polytechnic of Porto, Vila do Conde, Portugalb Constantin Brâncoveanu University of Pitesti, Faculty of Legal, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Pitesti, Romania

Received 7 December 2014; accepted 8 January 2015Available online 7 February 2015

KEYWORDS

Recruitment;Selection;Expatriates;Internationalassignments;Portugal

Abstract Long-term international assignments’ increase requires more attention being paidfor the preparation of these foreign assignments, especially on the recruitment and selectionprocess of expatriates. This article explores how the recruitment and selection process of expa-triates is developed in Portuguese companies, examining the main criteria on recruitment andselection of expatriates’ decision to send international assignments. The paper is based onqualitative case studies of companies located in Portugal. The data were collected throughsemi-structured interviews of 42 expatriates and 18 organisational representatives as well fromnine Portuguese companies. The findings show that the most important criteria are: (1) trustfrom managers, (2) years in service, (3) previous technical and language competences, (4) orga-nisational knowledge and, (5) availability. Based on the findings, the article discusses in detailthe main theoretical and managerial implications. Suggestions for further research are alsopresented.© 2014 Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA). Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. Allrights reserved.

1. Introduction

The internationalisation of business, the globalisation ofeconomy and the mobility of people and assets on a globalscale have contributed to the increase in worker expa-triation, bringing new challenges to international human

∗ Corresponding author.E-mail addresses: doramartins@eseig.ipp.pt (D. Martins),

lauradindire@yahoo.com (L.M. Diaconescu).

resource management (IHRM). Expatriates were defined asthose who are currently working or had previously worked incountries outside their country of origin (Collings, Scullion,& Morley, 2007), and included both self-initiated expatri-ates and company-assigned expatriates (Suutari & Brewster,2000). In this article, we just study the company assignedexpatriates. The company-assigned expatriates are employ-ees send by a company to another company of the group,to live and work in another country for a period of 1 ormore years, on an international assignment (Caligiuri, 2000;Bossard & Peterson, 2005; Martins, 2013) whether this be intraditional or long-term assignments (Collings et al., 2007).

1645-9911/$ – see front matter © 2014 Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA). Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tekhne.2015.01.001

Expatriates recruitment and selection 49

With the emergence of these groups of employees (Scullion& Brewster, 2001; Linehan & Scullion, 2002; Brookfield GRS,2013), one of their main challenges is to help organisa-tions attract and select their expatriates’ right skills forone international assignment. This supposition suggests thatinternational organisations through their human resourcemanagement function have to be able to adjust (a) whatthis particular group of employees wants to, and (b) whatthe companies are willing to give (Aghazadeh, 1999).

In recent years, in spite of the continuing effects of thefinancial crisis that began in 2007, the growth of interna-tional mobility volumes as companies reported increases inthe number of international assignments and higher expec-tations regarding future growth (Brookfield GRS, 2013).Obtaining economic growth becomes a must in the cur-rent period when the new economic normality triggers theemergence of crises in different fields (Ioneci, Antonescu, &Mîndreci, 2011).

Mainly long-term assignments continue to be used bycompanies for organising international work (Brookfield GRS,2012). The question for multinational companies is how toselect the right people. Much of the early work on long-term assignments was concerned with recruitment and/orselection of expatriates, such as the criteria used in such adecision (Suutari & Brewster, 2001).

Despite the importance of this theme in literature,empirical studies (e.g., Baruch, Steele, & Quantrill, 2002;Caligiuri & Colakoglu, 2007; Hippler, 2009; Paik, Segaud, &Malinowski, 2002; Welch, Steen, & Tahvanainen, 2009) focusmainly on companies based in the USA, the United Kingdom,Finland, Germany, and Australia, and studies of a similarnature in companies based in Portugal are unknown. Thisresearch intends, therefore, to continue the studies alreadyconducted in other countries. It is the aim of the researchto know how the international assignees’ recruitment andselection process is developed in Portuguese companies andto understand the role that the human resource manage-ment department has in this process. Despite the main focusof this research being on a specific geographic area (i.e.,Portugal), it is expected that the data from this study willprovide a basis for comparative analysis in an internationalcontext. In addition, the deficient candidates’ selectioncould be one cause responsible for assignment failure, butlittle attention has been paid to the methods of selection(Brookfield GRS, 2013).

This topic has a special relevance in the Portuguese con-text, since, to our knowledge (a) there are no empiricalstudies concerning this issue that involves expatriates fromPortuguese companies; (b) the number of expatriates fromPortuguese companies or subsidiaries into foreign MNCs’head offices has grown; (c) little is known about expatri-ates recruitment and selection process used by Portuguesecompanies. The primary goal of this article is to increasethe understanding of the development of the recruitmentand selection process of expatriates in Portuguese compa-nies. As a secondary specific goal, it identifies the maincriteria used for the recruitment and selection of candi-dates for international assignments. We thus propose tworesearch questions: (1) How the recruitment and selec-tion process of candidates for international assignmentsin Portuguese companies is developed?; (2) Which are themain criteria used for recruitment and selection of expa-

triates for international assignments? Based on this, weset the research question concerning comparative analysisof recruitment and selection processes of nine companiesselected for our study, namely is there some particular (orprecise) understanding of recruitment and selection phe-nomenon in Portuguese companies. These goals help us tounderstand how Portuguese companies decide to attract andchoose the expatriates to send to their foreign branches.

Using case studies and qualitative methods can providean in-depth analysis of how managers and employees inter-pret what are the main criteria defined by companies ontheir recruitment and selection processes of internationalassignees.

This article focuses, in particular, on internationalrecruitment and selection for expatriates’ long-term assign-ments. With this in mind, the article is structured as follows:after reviewing the literature on expatriates’ recruitmentand selection, we present the method and then our findings.After exploring the main findings, we discuss the limitationsof the study and paths for future research and we presentthe main conclusions.

2. Recruitment and selection for internationalassignments

Expatriates’ recruitment and selection is one main problemwe can find in international human resource managementliterature (Suutari & Brewster, 2001). How to choose theright person is the major challenge for companies whichdevelop international assignments.

Although Torrington (1994) suggests that there is no pro-file of the ideal expatriate that should be considered inthe selection of expatriates, several authors (e.g., Avril &Magnini, 2007; Baruch et al., 2002; Caligiuri, 2000; Caligiuri,Tarique, & Jacobs, 2009; Hurn, 2007) suggest there are manyimportant criteria that should be privileged during the expa-triates’ recruitment and selection process. For many authors(e.g., Harvey & Novicevic, 2001; O’Sullivan, Appelbaum,& Abikhzer, 2002; Holopainen & Björkman, 2005; Avril &Magnini, 2007) it is mostly consensual that not only theprevious international experience valorisation and the expa-triate’s ability to communicate, but also the recognition ofpersonality issues and the way one thinks are also importantrequisites for successful expatriation recruitment.

Harvey and Novicevic (2001) concentrated their attentionon some core personality characteristics for expatriate suc-cess (e.g., extroversion; agreeableness; conscientiousness;emotional stability; openness and intellect). In addition tothese big five personality characteristics, others authors(e.g., Baruch et al., 2002; Caligiuri, 2000; Caligiuri et al.,2009; Hurn, 2007) admit other personal abilities as being alsoimportant such as adaptability to different norms and modesof behaviour, high tolerance for ambiguity, ability to workunder stress; open-mindedness for developing and main-taining relationships with a variety of different groups ofpeople, tolerance, patience, ability to work, independence,creativity, self-confidence and motivation.

At the same time, Harvey and Novicevic (2001) sug-gest that the recruitment and selection process should befocused on the competency-based expatriate selection per-spective to combat the expatriate without knowledge of new

50 D. Martins, L.M. Diaconescu

market opportunities. These authors (Harvey & Novicevic,2001) suggest that the company specific abilities are theones that sustain the competitive advantage, such as theentrance abilities; meaning, these are the abilities thatallow the company to effectively compete in global mar-kets, given their products, services and people (e.g., humanresources that generate value rare and inimitable value),its management ability, meaning the abilities that enablethe implementation of new strategic visions for superiororganisational performance through the development of anetwork between the entire company business units (e.g.,business network management), along with abilities basedon transformation, considered as the abilities that promoteorganisation knowledge through tacit knowledge transferredby expatriates, being very difficult to imitate by their com-petitors (e.g., management abilities to perform tasks thatallow the gaining of a competitive position in the market orthrough the transfer of knowledge and other business units’cultural attributes).

Another aspect to consider is the cultural aspect forwhich the individual will be sent to (Webb & Wright, 1996;Yavas & Bodur, 1999; O’Sullivan et al., 2002). One has toevaluate if the cultures between the origin countries aresimilar or different, since that differentiation may affectnot only the mission performance but also the candidate’sdecision on accepting the international challenge (Webb& Wright, 1996; Harvey & Novicevic, 2001; Baruch et al.,2002). This assumption requires that the companies, intheir recruitment and selection process, consider the candi-date’s international experience as a basic requisite, mainlyin the host country, aiming to guarantee that the missionis successfully achieved. In parallel, it is known that manycompanies still ignore the importance of the partner and thefamily within the process of the candidates’ expatriation.Nevertheless, studies by Webb and Wright (1996), O’Sullivanet al. (2002) and Avril and Magnini (2007) claim the assump-tion that when partners are favourable to the internationalexperience their adjustment becomes easier to perform aswell as the expatriate’s one.

Several researchers (Webb & Wright, 1996; Yavas & Bodur,1999; Suutari & Brewster, 2001; O’Sullivan et al., 2002;Hurn, 2007) identify five categories of attributes related tothe candidate’s successful adjustment to expatriation, to berequired in the formal Recruitment and Selection process:(1) labour issues, technical abilities and leadership abili-ties; (2) interpersonal abilities and previous performanceevaluation; (3) motivational status and availability for alife abroad; (4) family situation and partner adaptation; (5)linguistic abilities, international experience, knowledge ofthe destination country and its culture. Nevertheless, thestudy by Suutari and Brewster (2001) developed in Finnishcompanies reveals that the majority of the expatriateswere selected through informal methods. Another state-ment, by Harris and Brewster (1999) and Holopainen andBjörkman (2005) reveal that companies continue to selecttheir expatriates mainly by their technical abilities and pre-vious performances.

The recent results of Brookfield GRS (2013) show thatthe top criteria for including employees in an internationalassignee candidate pool on companies are: the inclusion ofhigh-potential employees in the candidate pool (70%), can-didates who previously expressed a willingness to go on

international assignments (57%), candidates with specific(rare) skills (30%), and candidates with previous interna-tional assignment experience and who had cultural abilityor skills (17%). At the same time, competencies assessedduring the candidate selection process included flexibil-ity/adaptability (88%), technical skills (88%), leadershipskills (81%), cross-cultural communication (63%) and familysuitability (50%).

In summary, the literature suggests that expatriates’recruitment and selection process is complex. We should,therefore, appreciate aspects such as cultural, economicand political differences between the host and homecountries, individual and family characteristics and sev-eral competences of the expatriate (Harvey and Novicevic,2001).

3. Methodology

This research uses a qualitative approach which providedthe ability to elucidate rich, in-depth data on perceptionof individual and organisational issues. Qualitative researchcould make a substantial contribution to theory buildingin management (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2014). As part ofthe research design, Doz (2011) suggests that qualitativeresearch methods offer the opportunity to help move thefield forward and assist in providing their own theoret-ical grounding as well as to ‘‘open the black box’’ oforganisational processes, the ‘‘how’’, ‘‘who’’ and ‘‘why’’of individual and collective organised action as it unfoldsover time in context. Thus, the open nature of qualitativeresearch provides a more likely opportunity to discover newphenomena worthy of research.

As pointed out by Doz (2011), in a new context, semi-structured interview data is a way to learn about thatcontext in detail, identify and understand new phenomenaas they arise and assess the extent to which they are worthyof academic research.

In order to improve credibility of qualitative research,we construct a preliminary model to ensure this credibility.A triangulated research approach was undertaken with sev-eral independent data sources and data collection methodsused to ensure validity (Saunders, Lewis, & Thornhill, 2007).Data analysis was based on the topics identified in the litera-ture, in which the research questions were defined. Second,during the data collection phase, the transcripts were readby one researcher to gain an understanding of how eachinterviewee had their recruitment and selection process.During this process, both researchers undertook a systematiccomparison between the themes highlighted by the inter-viewees and the initially coded themes. The researchersalso compared the narratives of the interviewees to iden-tify commonalities and differences in the unfolding of theirrecruitment and selection process.

3.1. Cases and units of analysis

We conducted a multiple case study. Yin (2014) suggeststhat a multiple case study should present between 4 and10 cases; we have a theoretical and intentional sample(Creswell, 2013) composed of nine companies. Two criteriawere adopted to choose the cases. Firstly, the companies

Expatriates recruitment and selection 51

must be located in Portugal. Secondly, they should haveexpatriates.

3.1.1. Data collection and analysis

Between October 2009 and January 2014, semi-structuredinterviews were conducted on international assignees(between four and seven per company). In total, sixtyinterviews were carried out (eighteen with organisationalrepresentatives and forty-two with international assignees).The purpose of these interviews was to ask the expatri-ates and organisational representatives from these ninecompanies to describe the recruitment and selection pro-cess. Particular attention was paid to data collection ofthe recruitment and selection process of internationalassignments. The expatriates described their individualexperience and organisational representatives described therecruitment and selection process existing in the companythat they represent as expatriates managers. All inter-viewees were native Portuguese and all interviews wereconducted in Portuguese, by the same researcher. All inter-views were conducted face-to-face (with exception for oneinterview, which was made by email because the expatri-ate was in Brazil at the moment when we did the datacollection). The average duration of each interview was70 min. They were tape-recorded, the data were transcribedand categorised based on ‘commonalities and differences’across emerging themes and then frequencies for each cate-gory were determined. They were assessed and interpretedusing content analysis (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2002).

To ensure anonymity, identification codes were assignedto each company: company A; company B; company C; com-pany D; company E; company F; company G; company H;company I. Confidentiality was guaranteed for interview-ees and the companies. In each company, internationalassignees were called interviewee (1, 2, 3 and 4) and orga-nisational representatives were called ORGREP 1 or 2. Aninterview guide was used to ensure that similar data werecollected from each expatriate.

3.2. Characterisation of the companies

All companies were private and based in the North of Por-tugal: five comprised the industrial sector (companies A; B;C; D and E), two of them integrated the commerce and dis-tribution sector (companies F and G), one belonged to theservice sector (company H) and, finally, the last company (I)was in the telecommunications and information technolo-gies business. All companies were based in Portugal. Themajority (n = 5) has less than one thousand workers. Fivecompanies had had expatriation experience more than tenyears before, and four of them had had this experienceless than five years before. Table 1 summarises the maincharacteristics of companies included in the study.

3.3. Characterisation of the interviewees

Eighteen organisational representatives (twelve males; aged39 on average) have participated in this study. Seven per-formed technical functions related to the HR department (alawyer, two operational managers and four technical coordi-nators) and eleven belonged to directors’ boards (ten human

Table 1 Companies characteristics.

Companies distribution

n %

Sector classification

Industrial sector 5 56.0Commerce anddistribution sector

2 22.0

Services sector 1 11.0TIT sector 1 11.0

Expatriation experience (years)

More than 10 years 5 56.0Less than 5 years 4 44.0

Number of workers

Less than 1000 5 56.0More than 1000 4 44.0

resources directors and an administrator). The majoritypossessed a university degree (n = 16), one had a Masters’degree and another had grade twelve.

Forty-two international assignees were interviewed (36males; aged 43 in average). International assignments hadseveral destination countries; Germany (n = 11), Angola(n = 10) and Brazil (n = 10) were referred to as the most rep-resentative. The vast majority of the international assignees(n = 23) possessed a university degree, eight of them hadpost-graduate qualifications (MBA and a Masters’ Degree),five had a BA, five had finished twelfth grade, and one hadfinished ninth grade. As for their marital status, 10 weresingle, 27 were married and 5 were divorced. When theywere interviewed, 9 international assignees had performedtechnical functions and 33 performed direction functions (12managers of intermediate level, 17 senior managers and 4senior top managers). Seventeen performed technical func-tions and twenty-five performed management functions.Table 2 summarises the main demographic characteristicsof participants in the study.

4. Results

4.1. The recruitment and selection process of

expatriates in Portuguese companies

We next present the empirical results regarding the recruit-ment and selection process of expatriates in Portuguesecompanies. We include representative quotes on the typeof recruitment and selection, process duration and familyissues.

4.1.1. Type of recruitment and selection

The companies in our study favour internal recruitmentover the external one. All the interviewed expatriates hadalready worked in the home company before embracing aninternational mission.

The process of recruitment and selection is very informaland conducted directly between the administration and thecandidate. The expatriates believe they were the only onesinvited for the international mission they performed.

52 D. Martins, L.M. Diaconescu

Table 2 Participants demographic characteristics.

International assignees Organisational representatives

n % n %

Number of interviews 42 70 18 30

Age

Average 43 39Minimum 24 28Maximum 66 52

Gender

Male 36 86.0 12 67.0Female 6 14.0 6 33.0

Marital status

Single 10 24.0Married 27 64.0Divorced 5 12.0

Education

9th grade 1 2.0 0 0.012th grade 5 12.0 1 5.5BA 5 12.0 0 0.0University degree 23 55.0 16 89.0Post-graduate qualifications 8 19.0 1 5.5

Tenure in the assignment (months)

Average 35Minimum 8Maximum 125

Position

Technical functions 17 40.0Management functions 25 60.0HR technical functions 7 39.0HR directors 10 55.5Administrator 1 5.5

Host country

Germany 11 26.2Angola 10 23.8Argentina 1 2.4Brazil 10 23.8Brazil/Netherlands 1 2.4China 3 7.1France 1 2.4Macau 1 2.4Malaysia/Singapore 1 2.4Poland 3 7.1

I was invited by one of the company’s administrator. . . theinvitation was exclusively directed to me. . . (interviewee2, company I).

. . . the invitation was done in an informal and friendlyconversation, as it is usual among the companyadministration. . . (interviewee 1, company F).

There was no relationship. I didn’t apply, I was invited. . .

(interviewee 2, company E)

The interviewed organisational representatives con-firm these companies’ tendency to privilege the internal

recruitment. The personalised invitation, based on a trustfulrelationship between the administration and the expatriatedcollaborator, is the most common procedure. These invia-tion procedure comes from the administration, in additionto the board of the human resources’ direction as well as bythe market or the business direction, in which scope of theexpatriation is intended.

. . . it’s identified, someone detaining the potential forthe purpose, and once he is identified . . . the invitation isdone. . . I don’t remember seeing an internal recruitment

Expatriates recruitment and selection 53

procedure, it was always by a directed invitation. . .

(ORGREP 2, company G)

. . . by invitation. In the functions of top responsibilityframing, people were identified, very well identified,according to a perfectly defined profile, . . . (ORGREP 2,company C)

When the company does not have internal humanresources to expatriate, but considers as fundamental theoperations’ control through the headquarters located in Por-tugal, the alternative is to go for the external recruitment.This experience was confirmed by some organisational rep-resentatives:

. . . when we don’t have available people inside we have tomove forward to an external recruitment, where we ana-lyse the speculative applications that we have, or we putan ad in the newspaper, or we hire a specialised companyfor the purpose. (ORGREP 1, company B)

. . . but we can also have the case of not having peopleinternally and, therefore, we go to the market tryingto find out someone specifically for that mission, as ithappened before. (ORGREP 1, company A)

Nevertheless, the external recruitment only occurs incase the invitations are denied, not being, therefore, appli-cable to all companies in our study. Companies G, H and Inever went for the external recruitment for internationalmissions abroad:

. . . we seek internally, don’t find candidates, eitherbecause people didn’t want to go or because, you know,the market was not a nice one and, therefore, we needto go to the labour market. (ORGREP 2, company C)

We do not go out for expatriating. Everyone that wasexpatriated was internal, and internals are not cho-sen by recruitment. People are identified as having theneeded profile for the function and then they are natu-rally invited. (ORGREP 2, company G)

. . . we never recruited anyone externally to fulfill anexpatriation need. (ORGREP 1, company I)

4.1.2. Process duration

The process of recruitment and selection in these companieshas a variable duration, depending on the opportunities andneeds of expatriation. On average, the process takes from 1to 3 months in all companies.

The process took about 2 months (interviewee 2, com-pany B).

Almost 3 months (interviewee 4, company H).

. . . this process can take months. Well, I would say nomore than three months, but it’s a long process. (ORGREP2, company G)

4.1.3. Family inclusion

No company has the family inclusion issue formalised in itsrecruitment and selection process, although the expatri-ate’s family situation is a determinant condition for somerepatriates to accept the international mission:

. . . for me to accept the challenge I had, no doubt, acondition, I would go only if my wife went too. . . whenputting this condition, not going if she didn’t go, theyopened a possibility for her afterwards (interviewee 2,company I).

. . .I was alone. I think this is one criterion to be selected.The company didn’t have a requirement to have our ownfamily (interviewee 4, company A)

Nevertheless, companies show sensitiveness towardsfamily issues, but consider it a personal question and not anorganisational responsibility. The organisational representa-tives mention that the company is only responsible for theadvising of the expatriate, in order to make him evaluatethe family consensus before they communicate their finalacceptance or refusal of the expatriation process.

. . .since we do not force them to go here or there onlybecause it is compulsory, our collaborators have to beresponsible for their own decision. . . We take care ofthat. . . but there are no concrete measures in order toinvolve the family in the recruitment process. ORGREP 2,company D)

4.2. Recruitment and selection criteria of

candidates for international assignments

The main recruitment and selection criterion among allcompanies is based on trust from the administration on itsexpatriate candidates. Besides this criterion, one must addthe adequate ability profile (company B; C; D; E; H; I), theorganisational knowledge (company A; C; D; E; F; G), theyears in service (company G; I) and availability (company A;C; D; E; F; G).

When the worker expatriation is for leadership func-tions, trust associated to an adequate ability profile is theprivileged criterion. Individual availability, per se, has norelevance for this kind of mission. When, on the other hand,the function requires no high responsibilities, the candi-date’s availability prevails over the other selection criteria(common in Company A).

Here are some illustrations of the identified selectioncriteria:

4.2.1. Trust from managers

It was trust, even because during many months, while theBrazilian H Company was not created. . . all the moneythat was sent, was coming directly to my bank account(interviewee 3, company H).

The invitation was personalised. . . by the way they trustme, I suppose. . . (interviewee 2, company I).

It has to be someone we trust. If the interviewee 4 didn’taccept to go, I doubt we had gone. He was a «sine quanon» question. (ORGREP 2, company H)

. . . when there’s an invitation it’s always to a trustful per-son, . . . because it is very important. (ORGREP 2, companyG)

54 D. Martins, L.M. Diaconescu

4.2.2. Candidates’ availability

. . . they wanted a team there. . . and I, at that time,showed interest. . . I was interested. . . (interviewee 4,company A).

I always said I was available, so I had availability eitherfor Portugal or abroad (interviewee 5, company G).

. . . we obviously try to see if the people we identify. . .

if they have or not the possibility to accept the interna-tional challenges. If they have, we make the invitation.(ORGREP 2, company A)

I chose the interviewee 3 because she was not married. . .

the interviewee 4 was also single. Therefore, they bothhad availability to go. . . (ORGREP 2, company H)

4.2.3. Years in service

I believe that it was proposed to me because of my yearsin service in this company. . . (interviewee 2, company I).

. . . after almost 25 years of service in this corporation,

. . . so I can’t say no, it’s a bit military (interviewee 4,company G).

. . . because they are people that are with us for a longtime now. . . (ORGREP 1, company I)

4.2.4. Organisational knowledge

. . . I’ve worked all over the place: factories, countries,business units, everywhere (interviewee 2, company D).

I have been working in this company for many years.From the beginning, I have changed my position everytwo years. When I was invited to go, I had deep organi-sational knowledge. For this I was selected (interviewee2, company E).

Those people on whom we . . . recognized that companyorganisational knowledge, the way of being, our com-pany culture, those were the ones we sent. (ORGREP 1,company B)

4.2.5. Adequate technical abilities

. . . all that development performed by the company, thewillingness to introduce the ‘‘Linen’’ programmes. . . Iwas precisely working on that, on creating the databaseand I totally understand the process [it was due to thattechnical knowledge that I was invited] (interviewee 3,company C).

[the positions I had in the Brazilian company] were similarto the ones I performed here, with higher responsibilities,naturally, because we were starting from the basis, start-ing the company. It was in the Marketing area and hereI was a marketing technician. . . (interviewee 2, companyH).

We had the case of one person that had done it but. . .

when we talked to him we understood that he didn’thave the [technical] abilities and therefore we deniedthat possibility, . . . (ORGREP 1, company I)

. . .they are people who are very specific in certain func-tions and that, for that reason, play that function in a verygood way, being, therefore, the ones chosen to the mostdiverse projects. . . by their technical ability. (ORGREP 2,company C)

4.2.6. Linguistic abilities

. . . even being in Poland, reports and meetings, etc. wereconducted in English. I was fluent in English and, there-fore, I was selected (interviewee 4, company C).

. . .you have to know how to speak English, you have toknow how to communicate in English, otherwise you willnot be able to feel integrated in the German team. . . andthat know-how I already had. . . I also had some Germanlanguage knowledge. . . (interviewee 1, company E).

. . . the foreign language issue is another factor that wealso analyse. We make written tests and interview themin the foreign language to try to evaluate their compe-tence there. . . (ORGREP 1, company I)

5. Discussion and conclusions

The results of this study indicate that in these companiesthere is a similar expatriates’ recruitment and selection pro-cess. Evidence reveals that this process is taken on in avery informal way and fully controlled by companies’ topmanagers.

Our study shows that the key criteria are: trust frommanagers, years of service, technical and languages’ com-petences, organisational knowledge and availability ofcandidates. Thus, the expatriates’ recruitment and selec-tion process identified in these companies is incongruentwith previous theoretical findings (e.g., Avril & Magnini,2007; Bonache, Brewster, & Suutari, 2001; Noe, Hollenbeck,Gerhart, & Wright, 2012; Suutari & Brewster, 2001) whichsuggest that technical competences have been almost thesole variable used in deciding whom to send on internationalassignments, and that multiple skills are necessary for suc-cessful performance in these assignments (Caligiuri et al.,2009; Harvey & Novicevic, 2001). Other empirical stud-ies (e.g., Born & Peltokorpi, 2010; Tungli & Peiperl, 2009;Peterson, Napier, & Shul-Shim, 2000) show that expatri-ates’ selection criteria vary significantly between American,European or Japanese companies. We take as and examplethe case of Germany, where the candidate’s availability forexpatriation is the major selection criterion. In Japan it isthe experience in the company, while in the UK and the USA,the technical and adequate abilities are the most appreci-ated ones. The relational abilities, the personality and theability to work in teams are also important criteria in allcountries, although differently valued.

Our findings show that Portuguese companies tend toresemble companies in the United States of America (Noeet al., 2012) which have not invested much effort inattempting to make correct expatriate selections. For exam-ple, (1) there are no tests to determine the degree to whichexpatriate candidates possessed cross-cultural skills; (2) thechoice of expatriates is not done from multiple candidates;(3) the companies in both countries emphasise only technical

Expatriates recruitment and selection 55

job-related experience and skills in making the selectiondecision.

Although several authors (e.g., Anderson, 2001; Caligiuri& Colakoglu, 2007; Harvey & Moeller, 2009) mention thatthe most strategic expatriation missions demand major con-cern with the selection processes (i.e., major rigour inthe evaluation of interpersonal, technical and managementcompetencies), the companies in our study privilege thecandidates’ choice by their technical competencies andby the existent trustful relationship, revealing as insuffi-cient the emphasis on the relational competencies and thecandidate’s family situation. In the studied companies, invi-tations are made preferably to internal collaborators, wellknow among the administration and on whom the com-pany possesses good references about their professionalperformance. This method of selection differs among the lit-erature (e.g., Avril & Magnini, 2007; Caligiuri, 2000; Martin& Anthony, 2006; O’Sullivan et al., 2002) and that suggestsdiversity among the selection criteria, namely the personal-ity valorisation (e.g., self-esteem, integrity, safety, courage)and relevant relational competencies for the expatriationsuccess (e.g., empathy, sociability, cordiality, consideration,extroversion, non-judging orientation). On the other hand,the control assumed in the process by the administrationof our study’s companies helps to understand the lowerintervention role played by the HRM function in the can-didates’ selection process. Nevertheless, this is a tendencycorroborated by other similar studies with samples of Euro-pean expatriates (Bonache et al., 2001; Harris & Brewster,1999; Suutari & Brewster, 2001), whose selection resultsfrom a personalised invitation from the administration to acollaborator in whom it trusts, based on his performanceand technical competence demonstrated along the pro-fessional history inside the original company. There are,therefore, reasons to believe that arbitrary in selectioncriteria may be explained by the lack of process formal-ity among the companies of the present study. Our researchadditionally suggests that if family issues are included inexpatriates’ recruitment and selection process it is easierfor the expatriates to accept an international assignment.Nevertheless, in the companies of our study there werenot family formal policies. Our results do not confirm theprevious studies (e.g., Arthur & Bennet, 1995) which con-sidered the family situation as the main important factoron selection for international candidates and future suc-cess in their international assignment. It is common toverify that these recruitment and selection programmes are,normally, directed to expatriates, excluding the relativesthat go with them in their international mission (Linehan& Scullion, 2002). However, the tendency to include thefamily in the processes of recruitment and selection of thecandidates has been growing since the 1980s. Since then,several authors (e.g., Harvey & Moeller, 2009; Haslberger &Brewster, 2008; Kraimer, Shaffer, & Bolino, 2009; Rushing &Kleiner, 2003) have assumed the family as a critical factorfor the success of the expatriation/repatriation. This phe-nomenon also emerges in the obtained results, mainly inthe companies that use expatriation for developing func-tions that are mainly strategic and not so much technical(companies C, E, F and G).

The results of our study are surprising on what con-cerns the possibility to reveal that most companies (i.e.,

companies A, B, F, H, I) seem to privilege candidates with-out family commitments, candidates that are starting theircareers and, therefore, see the departure decision as a wayto face job instability, or even candidates whose affectivebonds to the company are higher to those with the fam-ily, sacrificing them for the company. Such results revealthat we are facing some specificity among the recruitmentand selection processes in the companies located in thePortuguese context. It is possible that these particularitiesmay be connected to the Portuguese companies’ HRM role.Although from the 90s, HRM in Portugal has been monitor-ing, real-time trends that are occurring in the organisationallandscape (Neves & Goncalves, 2009), Cunha et al. (2010)argue that there is still a long way to go, since even begin-ning to be seen as strategic, the influence of HR departmentin Portuguese firms is still limited. Especially, this role onexpatriates’ management seems to be a little strategic.The little autonomy and little interventionist role of the HRdepartment in expatriation management process may alsocontribute to the absence of formalisation of recruitmentand selection process in companies of our study.

Research implications also emerge from this discussion.Firstly, it expands previous research on expatriates’ recruit-ment and selection process in the Portuguese context.Secondly, the empirical evidence results show that thereare no mandatory criteria but there can be several criteriaincluded in the expatriates’ selection, because all expatri-ates in our study accepted and fulfilled their internationalassignment. The main criteria for the candidates’ selec-tion that we found were ‘‘the trust’’, ‘‘years of service’’,‘‘technical and languages competences’’, ‘‘organisationalknowledge’’ and ‘‘availability’’ of candidates and not‘‘family situation’’ or ‘‘big five’’ characteristics as recom-mended by the literature reviewed.

Our results suggest some managerial implications ori-ented towards the development of the recruitment andselection process so as to improve the expatriation manage-ment of these companies in particular. Specifically, we arguefavourably towards the involvement of the HRM in this pro-cess in order to improve their capacity to plan and prepare inadvance to the departure, a moment which takes on averagefrom 1 to 3 months in all companies.

Finally, our study has some limitations that should beconsidered when interpreting the findings and should beconsidered when pursuing further research. Firstly, theapproach adopted case study and in-depth interviews ---that only allows abstract generalisation, i.e. contributionfor theory. Future studies should take into considerationthe theoretical contributions hereby presented and usequantitative approaches to validate and generalise findings.Moreover, future studies should include more Portuguesecompanies operating in several industries and in differentinternationalisation stages. On the other hand, the manage-ment strategy of the expatriates and the dimension of thecompany may help to explain some of the specificities in therecruitment and selection process found in the Portuguesecompanies compared to other countries. For example, thevaster experience in expatriation management from Euro-pean countries to Asian and American countries can help toexplain why different selection criteria were found in pre-vious studies (e.g., Bonache et al., 2001; Harris & Brewster,1999; Mayrhofer & Brewster, 1996; Tungli & Peiperl, 2009)

56 D. Martins, L.M. Diaconescu

but not replicated in the organisation of the companiesinvolved in this research.

Some interviewees are not recent expatriates. This factmay have created difficulties in the recollection of the realcriteria related with the recruitment and selection processat the time of the departure.

The relationship between the recruitment and selec-tion process and the performance of expatriates during theinternational assignment has not been exploited, so futurestudies could analyse how the recruitment and selection pro-cess influences their performance and consequently his/herwish and the organisation’s as well, to remain with or leavethe company during and/or upon their international assign-ment.

To sum up, this study encourages more investigations toenhance and deepen knowledge on the subject and to helpthe expatriates’ recruitment and selection process of Por-tuguese companies.

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